Fermi-liquid theory for a conductance through an interacting region attached to noninteracting leads

We study the relation between the dc conductance and the transmission through an interacting region based on the Kubo formalism using the perturbation analysis in the Coulomb interaction developed by Yamada-Yosida and Shiba. We find that the contributions of the vertex correction to the dc conductance disappear at T=0 if the currents are measured in the noninteracting leads. Consequently, the dc conductance is written in a Landauer-type form using the transmission coefficient for single-particle-like excitation at the Fermi energy. The results are generalized to a system with a number of scattering channels, and may be regarded as an extension of the relation derived by Fisher-Lee.Comment: text is not changed, 6 PS figures were replaced by 6 EPS figures in order to prevent the control-D problem of the PS file

Fermi liquid theory for the nonequilibrium Kondo effect at low bias voltages

In this report, we describe a recent development in a Fermi liquid theory for the Kondo effect in quantum dots under a finite bias voltage $V$. Applying the microscopic theory of Yamada and Yosida to a nonequilibrium steady state, we derive the Ward identities for the Keldysh Green's function, and determine the low-energy behavior of the differential conductance $dI/dV$ exactly up to terms of order $(eV)^2$ for the symmetric Anderson model. These results are deduced from the fact that the Green's function at the impurity site is a functional of a nonequilibrium distribution $f_{\text{eff}}(\omega)$, which at $eV=0$ coincides with the Fermi function. Furthermore, we provide an alternative description of the low-energy properties using a renormalized perturbation theory (RPT). In the nonequilibrium state the unperturbed part of the RPT is determined by the renormalized free quasiparticles, the distribution function of which is given by $f_{\text{eff}}(\omega)$. The residual interaction between the quasiparticles $\widetilde{U}$, which is defined by the full vertex part at zero frequencies, is taken into account by an expansion in the power series of $\widetilde{U}$. We also discuss the application of the RPT to a high-bias region beyond the Fermi-liquid regime.Comment: 8 pages, to appear in a special edition of JPSJ "Kondo Effect -- 40 Years after the Discovery", typos are correcte

Out-of-equilibrium Anderson model at high and low bias voltages

We study the high- and low-voltage properties of the out-of-equilibrium Anderson model for quantum dots, using a functional method in the Keldysh formalism. The Green's function at the impurity site can be regarded as a functional of a nonequilibrium distribution function. The dependence of the Green's function on the bias voltage V and temperature T arises through the nonequilibrium distribution function. From this behavior as a functional, it is shown that the nonequilibrium Green's function at high-voltage limit is identical to the equilibrium Green's function at high-temperature limit. This correspondence holds when the couplings of the dot and two leads, at the left and right, are equal. In the opposite limit, for small eV, the low-energy behavior of the Green's function can be described by the local Fermi-liquid theory up to terms of order $(eV)^2$. These results imply that the correlation effects due to the Coulomb interaction U can be treated adiabatically in the two limits, at high and low bias voltages.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures: to appear in J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. 71, No.12 (2002

Quasi-particle description for the transport through a small interacting system

We study effects of electron correlation on the transport through a small interacting system connected to reservoirs using an effective Hamiltonian which describes the free quasi-particles of a Fermi liquid. The effective Hamiltonian is defined microscopically with the value of the self-energy at $\omega=0$. Specifically, we apply the method to a Hubbard chain of finite size $N$ ($=1, 2, 3, ...$), and calculate the self-energy within the second order in $U$ in the electron-hole symmetric case. When the couplings between the chain and the reservoirs on the left and right are small, the conductance for even $N$ decreases with increasing $N$ showing a tendency toward a Mott-Hubbard insulator. This is caused by the off-diagonal element of the self-energy, and this behavior is qualitatively different from that in the special case examined in the previous work. We also study the effects of the asymmetry in the two couplings. While the perfect transmission due to the Kondo resonance occurs for any odd $N$ in the symmetric coupling, the conductance for odd $N$ decreases with increasing $N$ in the case of the asymmetric coupling.Comment: 27 pages, RevTeX, 14 figures, to be published in Phys. Rev.